by K. R. Smith
Again, thanks to the powerful effects of the drugs, within ten seconds my vision became blurred as my muscles loosened.
“…it’s time to get things started on the Muppet Show tonight…” I uttered out.
Or I think I uttered out? It sounded like my voice but I couldn’t feel my mouth move as I couldn’t feel anything at all…
*****
I swear I was sitting in the audience of the ‘Muppet Show’, watching the familiar stage. I saw Fozzy Bear get pelted with fruit and vegetables during his routine. I saw Gonzo get blown up. I saw Animal go nuts on the drums and eat his drum sticks.
Before my very eyes, I watched Animal turn into a pale tanned, hardened skinned, bulked-up, muscled body of a European Werewolf. I saw his eyes turn glowing green. His plastic eyes glowed like they were green lights, with the thin, black slits for pupils.
The muppet version of Declan in European Werewolf form then sat on a fake log howling out of tune to the song, “why are there so many, songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side…” As he howled, I saw the Lokoti Werewolf pack also as muppets, come out onto the stage as his back-up singers. Their smaller muscles were made of foam, their different glowing eyes were like multi-coloured light globes like the kind you see on a Christmas Tree.
As if the stage lights were turned off, abruptly all of this turned to quiet darkness…nothing, I couldn’t see or hear anything at first but then I started to make out a pale light. I realized that the pale light wasn’t stage lighting but it was moonlight. When I blinked to refocus my eyes, I realized I was no longer sitting in a theatre but I was lying down on the bathroom floor of my new house.
The light of the full moon was pouring in through the bathroom window. Then it suddenly looked brighter as my Werewolf eyes took over. I watched the nails on my hands grow longer as I felt the same happen to the nails on my feet. I felt my clothes become constricted as my body inflated with extra muscle-bulk.
Oh no, I knew what was going to come next! No sooner had I finished this train of thought, was I right.
“NNNOOOOOOOOO!!!” I rolled onto my back to howl in agony!
The pain! The pain! It felt worse than last time! I writhed on the floor, in utter torture. My stomach felt like it was on fire as I had painful spasms across my abdomen! Even my blood felt like it was boiling inside my veins as sweat poured from my skin…!
“GRANT!” I roared out in my thunderous Werewolf voice. “MUM! DAD! GRAN! GRANDFATHER!”
Come and help me! Please! Stop this pain!
“THE PAIN! MUM! THE PAIN IS WORSE THAN LAST TIME! MUM, HELP ME PLEASE!”
But no help came as I laid alone on the bathroom floor, convulsing in hideous physical anguish.
Where is everyone? Where did they all go? I smelled that they were close as I could smell the supernatural pheromones in my Lokoti Werewolf kin just as I could smell the familiar human scent of my mother and grandmother. But why won’t they help me?
Surely if they knew how bad the pain was, they would! If only they knew of the agonizing torture I was in, made the words, ‘hunger pains’ look like a tranquil walk in the park! If they knew, they would unlock the bathroom door and let me go gunning for Alma! Hell, they’d even help me catch a townsperson to eat!
“MUM! DAD! GRANT! THE PAIN! THE PAIN!” I sobbed in my thunderous voice.
I lay there waiting but no help came. Can’t they hear me? Don’t they know what’s happening to me? I rolled back onto my stomach as I pulled myself across the tiled floor towards the bathroom door.
“MUM! DAD! GRANT!” I banged with my fist. “HELP ME!”
Still nothing… Futilely I hit the door as hard as I could, but the door didn’t budge. The door didn’t even move from my pounding. The door didn’t move? Hang on, the door should have moved! In the very least, it should have rattled. Then that means that it’s not just the wood preventing my escape.
I sniffed at the air coming in from the gap between the door and the floor when I smelled three male Lokoti Werewolves standing on the other side. They must have their backs against it. They’re not helping me, they’re hindering me! It’s their fault I’m in so much pain!
“MUM! MUUUUUUM!” I tearfully cried out. “I CAN SMELL YOU! I KNOW YOU’RE HERE! HELP ME MUM, PLEASE!”
Downstairs where I couldn’t see what was happening but was later told; Mum and Gran anxiously paced around my new living room with Uncle Julian sitting with them.
“I have to go to her!” Mum started towards the staircase.
“No Jess!” Uncle Jules was quick to catch her. “You can’t.”
“Stop it Julian!” She pushed him off. “My daughter needs me!”
“Jess, right now that’s not B.” He warned. “It’s the bloodlust making her act that way.”
“Of course it’s her and she’s calling for her mother!” She refuted.
“Jess listen to me, please.” Uncle Julian held up his hands to stop her. “As soon as you open the bathroom door, B would knock you over and run towards Alma.”
“B wouldn’t hurt me!” She said indignantly.
“She wouldn’t feed on you Jess, but she would feed on others.” He said unhappily. “You have to stay here. Please sis, we know what we’re doing.”
Gran put her arms about Mum, “come and sit down, Jess.” She pulled her daughter over to sit on one of the sofas. “All three of us will wait it out until morning.”
Mum dissolved into tears as she allowed her mother to seat her. Gran sat beside as Uncle Julian knelt on the floor before them. He took hold of his sister’s hands and he tried to give her a brave smile.
“It’ll be alright Jess, you’ll see. Once we start B’s training as a new Werewolf? We’ll teach her control so this doesn’t have to happen anymore.” He promised.
“How come Dad didn’t lock you up in the bathroom when you first changed?” She sulked.
“I wasn’t part Circulator.” He said frankly. “My Mum and my sister are Circulators but I’m a Lokoti Werewolf, like my father and his father before him.”
Whilst my grandmother had one arm about her daughter, she reached out for her son. “Oh Julian…” the deceptively youthful Caucasian woman stroked her son’s long, black Lokoti hair. To an outsider it would have looked a little odd considering they appeared to be the same age. She said guiltily, “I wish I could have been here to help you when you went through your change.”
“It’s OK Mum.” He caught her hand and held it. “I guess I’m luckier than B because when I first changed, Dad took me on my first hunt immediately. He didn’t have to worry about me running away in the speed of light so he could start my training to placate the bloodlust.”
Mum groaned as she rose to her feet to begin to pace up and down. “Great, my daughter is a female Lokoti Werewolf. Wonderful, it would have to be MY daughter who’s a Circulator too!” She muttered as she paced faster. “She’s a Circulator like her mother, her grandmother, her great grandmother and her great, great grandmother. Now she’s a Werewolf, like her father, her grandfather, her great grandfather and her great, great grandfather!”
“Just as it is with the eldest males in the Riverclaw and Wisetail families.” Uncle Jules sung.
“So much for tradition!” She rolled her eyes. “I wish we could break family tradition by rearranging our genetics!”
“I don’t know if it is genetics behind this.” Gran frowned.
“Mum?” Uncle Jules queried.
“Vincent says that he can’t calculate for B because her energy in the timeline keeps fluctuating. It keeps disappearing at odd intervals and he can’t see why…” She speculated from her seat.
“He said there was something blocking his sight.” Mum recalled as she paced.
“Genetically speaking, just because her father, her Uncle and her two grandfathers are Lokoti Werewolves; her DNA shouldn’t have been activated. I mean, Lokoti women are carriers so they can pass the gene on to their sons. But it’s the sons that are activated when a m
ember of the pack dies.” Gran recanted.
“Yeah this sounds familiar.” He smiled patiently. “Do you have a point, Mum?”
“The ability to Circulate or to Calculate isn’t genetic. There is nothing in human DNA that can be passed down to dictate that a person will be able to see through time or to travel through time. But somehow our foremother, Elisha Worthall passed down her ability to Circulate through her progeny to Jarrod Worthall. She also somehow passed on the ability to Calculate through her progeny to Vincent Moher.” She thought out loud as she stood up.
Uncle Jules looked on in amusement as he now saw his mother start to pace beside his sister, as the two women brainstormed.
“So you’re saying that B is a genetic freak?” Mum raised her eyebrows. “By being a Circulator when it’s not meant to be passed down and by being a Lokoti Werewolf when women aren’t meant to be activated?”
“Not a freak, but an anomaly.” Gran frowned deeper still. “She truly is in temporal flux, an amalgamation of the past, present and future, all colliding into one. It’s probably why her future is so cloudy. Think about temporal causalities, Jess. A leads to B and the effect is C. By outward appearances, it would seem that Bianca becoming the first female Lokoti Werewolf as well as a Circulator by having Werewolf and Circulator ancestors is C – the effect. But it’s not.”
“Because A didn’t lead to B so why the hell did we end up with C?” Mum caught on. “Circulating is not a genetic ability and females are only carriers of the Lokoti Werewolf gene. So Vincent can’t calculate B’s future because C was never meant to happen! She was never meant to be both Lokoti Werewolf and Circulator!”
“Exactly!” Gran clapped her hands excitedly.
Both women stopped pacing and looked on each other like they were about to crack a major conspiracy. Uncle Jules remained quiet as he watched the two Circulators expectantly. Then he saw their faces fall and their shoulders slump as confusion returned to their faces.
“So then why is B the way she is?” My mother asked her mother.
“It beats me.” She shook her head. “But I think the space time continuum has something big planned for her, even if we don’t know it yet.”
Then Uncle Jules saw his twin and mother return to their pacing, as they tried to comprehend life and all of its little eccentricities.
*****
Meanwhile, in the upper part of the house; my husband, father and grandfather all stood outside the bathroom door. Dad was gripping onto the doorknob so hard his knuckles had turned white; Grandfather leaned with his back on the door to use himself as an extra support and Grant stood helplessly by, as his new wife screamed in pain.
They flinched but remained steady as they both heard and felt me bang on the door once more.
“GRANT! DAD! MUM!” They heard me holler. “HELP ME!”
“She’s strong.” Grandfather remarked.
“She’s almost as strong as a male Lokoti Werewolf.” Dad agreed.
Then all three flinched in sympathy pain, as they heard a bloodcurdling scream come through the wood that the agonizing bloodlust inflicted.
“If the DYSTAR stops Circulators from phasing through time, shouldn’t it stop B from also running in light speed?” Grant asked.
“Theoretically it should.” Grandfather answered.
“Then can’t we take her hunting if she can’t escape from us using her Circulator ability?” He continued.
“No! I won’t risk B to that.” Dad said fiercely. “She’s my daughter and I won’t risk her escaping us. I won’t risk the people of Alma complaining to the Government, if B eats one of them. I won’t risk the Government sending Marines or whatever soldiers they have available with machine guns, to destroy her.”
“But if she’s dosed on DYSTAR -” he began.
“Werewolves aren’t the only supernatural species with regenerative capability.” Grandfather interrupted. “Circulators can self-heal, including from DYSTAR. B could suddenly get her ability back while we were taking her on a hunt. Then it would be like the first night she changed all over again, she’ll run towards Alma and we won’t be fast enough to catch her.”
My husband’s eyes widened at the older Werewolves worry. His heart hurt as his stomach tightened at the idea of putting his young wife in any kind of danger. His protective Lokoti Werewolf instincts were in direct agreement with their plan.
“But we may not have to worry about the Government coming to destroy her.” Dad continued. “The morning after her first change, you should have seen her eyes, Grant. When she realized what she nearly did, B told me to get my hunting rifle and shoot her in the head.”
His eyes bulged at this news! His face became a mask of shock, which then turned into one of sadness. He looked from Dad to the door I was on the other side of.
“We’re not just saving the humans in Alma from B’s bloodlust, but we’re saving her as well.” Grandfather said sadly.
My new husband looked down at the floor and after a moment, Grant gave a nod to show he understood.
Just then Dad and Grandfather were nearly thrown forwards when I gave the door an almighty thump! They heard the sound of the wood crack and this time even Grant jumped forwards. He was quick to put his hand over where the wood was weakening to stop it from splitting.
“She’s getting stronger!” Dad said with gritted teeth, almost turning as he recaptured the rattling door knob.
“Her bloodlust is making her strength peak.” Grandfather agreed, pushing his back up against the wood once more.
All three of them stood ready incase the bathroom door completely broke. They knew they would have to restrain a vicious animal; a predator. They waited and then they waited some more…but nothing happened.
The door didn’t shake anymore, nor were there any further banging sounds. It turned eerily quiet, like inside the eye of hurricane. Grandfather and Dad exchanged an optimistic look as they wondered if the worst was now over? But their hopeful glances were interrupted when my husband doubled-over, with his face a mask of pain.
“Grant?” Grandfather put his arm out to steady him. “What is it, what’s wrong?”
“B’s pain… ” He groaned, “…the bloodlust is tearing her insides apart and she’s in complete agony!”
“My baby B?” Dad asked fearfully.
“I have to go in.” My husband moaned. “I have to be with her, to help her!”
“Grant, I don’t know if that’s a good idea -” Dad frowned.
“She needs me, Hunter.” He interrupted. “I’m going in!”
Dad looked conflicted on the younger Werewolf, before he looked questioningly at Grandfather. He watched his Second of the pack give a nod, although he looked a little wary himself.
“Alright then.” Dad sighed in resignation. “I’ll unlock the door and open it for one second. Em, stand ready incase she tries to bolt.”
Grant nodded to show he understood, as did Grandfather. After one more moment as the three exchanged a rueful look, they put their plan into play.
At first my father leaned in close to the door to listen in, trying to hear if I was right on the other side of it. Then he took a deep breath before his hands moved to the lock to turn it quietly. Grandfather stood ready just as Dad quickly opened the door and he barked out; “now!” Grant leapt through the crack and he immediately slammed the door shut behind!
However my husband soon found out that my father needn’t have worried about me making a mad dash as I felt so weak and wretched, I could no longer move. I was curled up in a ball on the cold and hard, tiled floor. I was panting hard in pain as the agonizing cramps ripped across my entire torso! I couldn’t even look up as Grant crouched down beside.
“B…?” His eyes watered. “B, come on.” He pulled me into an upright position where I was leaning against the bath tub and I growled at him warningly. He smoothed the hair off my wet face, “I know B, I know.”
I even snapped at his hands! Not to injure, but to warn him to keep a
way. However he sat down beside as he tried to pull me into his arms. Instead I pushed them away, as I turned my head in the opposite direction.
The pain was so bad, Grant’s scent became as intoxicating as a glass of vintage wine to an alcoholic wine connoisseur. I could hear his heart beat drumming in my ears as I could smell the blood in his veins whilst I could feel the heat emanate from his warm body. I was even tempted to feast on him!
I wanted him - I wanted him bad - but not as a wife should want her husband.
“Grant!” I snarled. “Get out of here!”
“No.” he growled back in his deep, thunderous Werewolf voice.
When I looked back, I saw that he had changed and he was gazing back with his glowing silver eyes. His enlarged Lokoti Werewolf muscles bulged underneath his long-sleeved t-shirt which was almost ripping at the seams.
“GRANT GET OUT OF HERE!” I roared, leaning away.
Then I thought that he did the stupidest as well as the cruelest thing I had ever seen a person do; he used the claws of his right hand to place a cut on his left wrist and then he held the injury up to my mouth.
My eyes widened as my nostrils flared at the seductive smell! My already elongated teeth grew sharper, as I stared at the blood hypnotized… Yet some tiny amount of will power enabled me to turn my head away from the temptation.
“What the HELL are you doing! Get it away from me!” I roared in fury.
How can he be torturing me like this?! What was he, a sadist?! Just my luck to be mated to the Maquis de Sade.
“Drink!” He ordered.
He used his uninjured hand to take hold of head then he thrust his injury against my mouth! But I refused to part my lips…
*NO B, HE’S YOUR MATE!*
My willpower refused to let his red sweetness in, as I locked my mouth shut. As strong as the bloodlust was to feed? So too were the protective instincts which kept my jaw shut.
“You won’t injure me.” He growled out. “Now drink!”
